Analysts Set Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) PT at $84.86

Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $84.86.

Several research firms recently weighed in on BRKR. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Bruker from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Bruker from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th.

Bruker Trading Down 0.3 %

BRKR stock opened at $82.20 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. Bruker has a 52-week low of $53.79 and a 52-week high of $94.86. The firm has a market cap of $11.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.15, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.17.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.05. Bruker had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 29.94%. The business had revenue of $844.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $809.35 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bruker will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. Bruker’s payout ratio is 6.85%.

Insider Transactions at Bruker

In other news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total transaction of $1,350,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 23,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 28.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bruker

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BRKR. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bruker during the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,582,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,840,735 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $488,478,000 after purchasing an additional 594,362 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,664,779 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $122,328,000 after purchasing an additional 562,684 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 95.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 928,418 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $57,840,000 after purchasing an additional 452,780 shares during the period. Finally, RTW Investments LP boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,381,703 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $210,680,000 after purchasing an additional 422,100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Bruker Company Profile

Bruker Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and distributes scientific instruments, and analytical and diagnostic solutions in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Bruker Scientific Instruments (BSI) BioSpin, BSI CALID, BSI Nano, and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies.